Humanity depends on the existence of healthy soils, both for the production of food and for ensuring a healthy, biodiverse environment, among other functions. COVID-19 is threatening food availability in many places of the world due to the disruption of food chains, lack of workforce, closed borders and national lockdowns. As a consequence, more emphasis is being placed on local food production, which may lead to more intensive cultivation of vulnerable areas and to soil degradation. In order to increase the resilience of populations facing this pandemic and future global crises, transitioning to a paradigm that relies more heavily on local food production on soils that are carefully tended and protected through sustainable management is necessary. To reach this goal, the Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils (ITPS) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recommends five active strategies: improved access to land, sound land use planning, sustainable soil management, enhanced research, and investments in education and extension.

The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.

– Wendell Berry (American novelist)

中文翻译：

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土壤：COVID-19以后我们生活的重要纽带

人类赖以生存的健康土壤，不仅用于粮食生产，而且还用于确保健康，生物多样的环境以及其他功能。由于食物链中断，劳动力不足，边界封闭和国家封锁，COVID-19威胁着世界许多地方的粮食供应。结果，更多的重点放在当地的粮食生产上，这可能导致对脆弱地区的更密集的耕作和土壤退化。为了提高面对这一大流行和未来全球危机的人口的抵御能力，有必要过渡到一种范例，该范例在很大程度上依赖于当地粮食生产，这种土地经过谨慎管理并通过可持续管理得到保护。为了达到这个目标，

土壤是生命，所有人的源泉和终点的重要纽带。它是治疗者，恢复者和复活者，疾病通过这种疾病传播给健康，年龄在青年时期，死亡在生命中。没有适当的照顾，我们就不可能有社区，因为没有适当的照顾，我们就不可能有生命。

–温德尔·贝瑞（Wendell Berry，美国小说家）